Tim Dodd's Everyday Astronaut - in pictures

Tim Dodd's Everyday Astronaut - in pictures

In November 2013, photographer
Tim Dodd, 29, found himself on an auction site, the sole bidder for a Russian spacesuit for which he paid $300. "When I saw it I felt this responsibility to do something exciting with it," he says. Dodd used it to recreate the menial tasks of a man going about his day. Technically, it isn't a spacesuit but a high-altitude fighter jet suit. "I don't know where it came from. It might have sat on the shelf for its whole life, but I like to pretend it's done something cool. If not, I'm giving it a second chance." He's working on
a second series where he tries to get to the moon. "It'll be almost cartoonish. He'll presumably fail, but I haven't figured it out yet"

Decisions, decisions

'The newspaper says 'Man in space" – this was the front page of the
Evening Gazette on 12 April 1961. He's holding a Nasa mug, and there are seven spacesuits in the closet. That is the capacity of a space shuttle, which could fly seven people”

Brushing my teeth

'The first equation on the mirror is for escape velocity, although people have pointed out that I was missing the letter 'm', which stands for mass. I guess that's why I haven't made it to the moon yet. The second equation is for orbital mechanics'

Time Magazine

'I grew up watching
Star Wars, and my first big infatuation was going to Nasa in Florida at the Kennedy Space Centre when I was really young. It wasn't an obsession, but it's one of those things that I've always kept up'

Rocket Science for Dummies

'I'm generally interested in space – I'm just a big space nerd. I found myself buying all these toys and space pyjamas and stuff, things that a seven-year-old would be doing. I took inspiration from my inner child'

Mowing the lawn

Kitchen disaster

'The calendar shows it's April 1970, when Apollo 13 happened; according to sun transit it was Pisces. There cookies falling everywhere are called Star Crunches: they're in the same alignment as the constellation'

Fixing my motorbike

'Everything on that licence plate has a meaning: G04 TLI means 'go for transmitter ignition', which is what Houston would say to Apollo missions when they'd head towards the moon. It also reads 'sea of tranquility', which is where Apollo 11 landed'

Zero-gravity simulator

'I live in a town of about 40,000 people which has a pretty tight-knit community. Most of the people at this concert knew who I was, so it wasn't a huge shock. This is the only picture I didn't take myself – usually I'll set up a tripod and time it'